The dark knight

[Hannes]

Hi guys,
finally after a long, long break with a massive lack of inspiration and some health issues I eventually put my fingers back on TG. Actually I wasn't visiting the forum very often, so I'm not really aware of the things that happened in the meantime. So, I think, I'll have to catch up a bit. I don't know so far, if I'll be as busy as I was before, but it felt good to do some new stuff.
Here is an image I started by testing a free knight character, which I edited a lot. He had no face, only some sort of a mask, which I replaced by a real head. I grew a beard in 3ds Max and made him wear some chainmail. I added a shield and put the guy into some scenery. As far as I remember all models except the plants and the head are free ones from Sketchfab.
First the scene took place at daytime, but I thought nighttime might look more interesting.
The embers are a mesh made out of particles: some tiny cylinders. The DOF blurs some of them, which looks a bit like motion blur, which is a nice side effect.

[DocCharly65]

Hey Hannes, very glad to see you back here.
Honestly I must say I had feared the worst, because we all don't get younger. Hope you're fine again.

And the knight i a master piece again. Great mood, great textures, great scene... and a really nice side effect, these embers. In my eyes the may even glow a bit more but anyway they re cool!

[mhaze]

Impressive as ever!

[Rezzin8]

This is really nice, love the look of the materials on the knight!

[crisb]

Great image ! I like that you said you 'made him wear chainmail'. Those CG characters with their opinions !

Also, very good to see you back, and not a bad way to start with the 'Dark Knight'.

all the best,

Cris.

[Hannes]

Thanks a lot, guys! This is very encouraging!

[WAS]

This is really great. I almost would really love to see this animated. The fire light twinkling, him breathing and a bit of idle movement. Even if it was just a lighting loop. This has a lot of atmosphere and I can almost smell the petrichor on the stone and the sweetness of the decomposing woodland, and the rustle of the leaves in the trees.

[Dune]

Glad to see you back, Hannes. I also feared a permanent leave, not necessarily health related, but other software perhaps. So, good to see your mastery again, and I hope your health will remain or get better.
Terrific piece of work again. I agree with all others. It's like s still from a movie.

One tiny nitpick, or addition; the wood on his shield could have some butches and more wear, like he's really used it to head off sword blows. Unless it's just brandnew been issued too him